Pants

Little Miss took the feminist movement back 100 years when she screamed cried and shouted,

"But girls only wear skirts and dresses, my friends wont like these jeans"

"But you liked them when you put them on, and its raining outside. Jeans are great for rain" Was my feeble attempt to combat her 3 year old peer group pressure. My mind was aghast I didnt expect this. I couldn't believe my little girl was so upset and worried about what her friends would think of what she was wearing. The jeans were covered in sequins for goodness sake.

Her crying continued, she wouldnt stop. I took a breathe. I saw two paths to go down;

 1) Say no to her and make her wear the jeans. The consequences I envsioned- Little Miss crying all the way to kindy in the car, her friends might say something cruel to her, or be really mean and not play with her. Little Miss might even go so far as wet herself to have a change of clothes. She might be in for a really tough day and only really learn that people are cruel, even your Mum.

Or

2) Say yes and let her change her outfit to a skirt. This way the crying would stop and Little Miss would be happy but then she learns that Mum gives into crying, but does listen and care about me.  Little Miss would conform to her peer group feeling acceptance and belonging. But Little Miss might learn its okay to be preoccupied about what other people think of what you look like.

What to do? Neither option was very appealing and time was ticking on. B was going to be late for school if I didnt get them in the car ASAP...

So what did I do?

I took her into her bedroom and chose a skirt for her to put on. The crying stopped. Little Miss was happy. But she received a lecture in the car about how she should NOT dress to please other people- only herself. Girls are lucky they can choose to wear all kinds of clothes. Boys in Australia only have pants and shorts. Boys in Fiji can wear sulus and in Scotland wear kilts. And everybody can wear whatever colours they like. Daddy has a pink and a purple shirt remember. But most important of all wear clothes that you like and dont worry about what other people think. Feel good about your own choices.

And it wasnt even 8.45am yet....